The Customer
by L van Am
Summary: A sequel/ companion to my story The Roost. Takes place a few weeks after that one, although you don't really have to read it. The girl's boyfriend is leaving, so she looks for comfort in someone who knows the feeling. PC/Brewster. City Folk compliant.


**Disclaimer**: Nope, not mine. Although I wish it was.

* * *

He knew most of the girl's moods when he saw them; she spent too much time in his shop for him not to know. So it was a surprise one day when she walked in in a frenzied mood that he couldn't identify.

She ran down the stairs sobbing and threw herself into her usual bar stool. She slumped over the bar, head in her arms, and sobbed uncontrollably for at least five minutes. Brewster couldn't console her, he knew that, so he just stood brewing coffee and watching her warily.

Finally, she stopped sobbing so painfully and sat up, looking at Brewster apologetically through watery eyes.

"Can I have a cuppa? And make it sweet, please," she said in a small, wavering voice.

Brewster poured her a cup of coffee, added sugar and pigeon milk, and slid it wordlessly across the bar for her. She grabbed it and immediately downed half the cup, then set it down and glared at it half-heartedly, looking like she was going to cry again.

"What happened?" Brewster asked. "Boyfriend trouble?" He didn't like to admit it, but there was a small part of him that hoped that she was having issues with that frog she dated.

She turned her glare from his mug to him in an instant, then just as quickly, the look dropped from her face. "Jeremiah," she said quietly. "He's moving."

Brewster winced. He knew what that meant.

She continued anyway. "He said he'd write, said we could keep a relationship going, but... you know how it is." She looked at Brewster again, now again on the verge of tears. "They never write. As soon as they leave town, they totally forget about everyone and everything."

"Not everything," Brewster denied. "Impossible." It couldn't possibly be.

But the girl nodded sadly. "I met Apollo in the city once. He didn't recognize me." She choked. "We were best friends, and he didn't recognize me. And now Jeremiah..." she let out a strangled half-sob-half-yelp and slumped over the bar, now sobbing freely.

Brewster did something that he'd never done before: he reached over the bar and patted the crying girl gently and rather awkwardly on the back.

"It'll be okay," he consoled, although his rough voice wasn't well suited to gentleness. "It'll all work out."

She snorted and looked up at the pigeon with a sceptical expression on her face. "You're a bad liar," she chuckled. "But thanks anyway."

Brewster shrugged. "I tried." He stood with the still-sobbing girl until she worked up the strength to sit up again. "I really am sorry, though."

"Thanks, Brewster," she sniffed. "I should probably get home." She downed the rest of her coffee and slid the cup across the bar, then stood up to leave.

As she approached the stairs, Brewster felt compelled to write down his phone number. "Wait," he called softly to her. "Take this." He handed her the bar napkin with his number on it. "If you need to talk, call me. I always have my phone with me, even at work."

She smiled slightly, the lightest expression he had seen on her face since she had stumbled down the stairs earlier. "Thanks, Brewster." She slipped the number into her pocket and disappeared up the stairs.

Brewster sighed and leaned on the bar. It had been the right thing to do, to give that girl a wing for support. He knew that the other villagers would be quite likely to forget about the frog when he left, just as the frog would forget about them, so she would have no one to grieve her loss with.

So why did her feel like he was back in high school and had just asked his crush for a date?

* * *

The girl didn't come into the Roost for a week and a half. Brewster found himself missing her company after about two days, although he wasn't too worried about her. If she needed something, she would come in, or call him. Or so he told himself.

Others, however, were rather more perceptive than Brewster thought.

"Where's that girl?" K.K. Slider asked when he sat down on the bar stage on Saturday night. "She's usually here around now."

"She's having a tough week," Brewster told him rather more coldly than necessary. "Her boyfriend's leaving town."

K.K. winced sympathetically. "Rough, man." He fixes Brewster with a look. "Aren't you worried about her?"

Brewster returned the look, his glasses flashing. "She's an adult, she can take care of herself."

K.K. settled back into his seat, looking satisfied. "You're worried about her." Brewster opened his beak to protest, but the dog cut him off. "You know you are, man. Why don't you go see her? She could probably use the company."

She probably could, Brewster knew. He knew where she lived: just south of the Able Sisters' shop, in a house with a black roof right on the river. He could go over to her house with a thermos of coffee and some sympathy. He could do it easily.

Brewster shook his head. "Can't."

"Why not?" K.K. asked.

"I... She's a customer. That's all."

"You're lying through your beak."

Brewster shook his head. "Still can't."

"Fine. You should eventually, though."

* * *

But another week passed after that Saturday with no word from the girl. Then, out of the blue, Brewster received a phone call.

"Brewster."

"Oh, thank god I reached you." It was the girl. She was breathless and choked. "I..." She stopped suddenly. Brewster could hear her breathing roughly. "I'm in the city. I just... Brewster, Jeremiah was here. He looked right through me. He didn't even see me..."

"Are you alright?" Brewster asked.

"I'm fine," she said, but her sudden sobs betrayed her. "I'm not," she admitted. "Brewster, I really hate to ask, but... I don't think I could possibly walk past him alone. Could you... Could you come and get me? Please?"

"I'll be right there," Brewster promised, ignoring the voice in his head that told him that this was a bad idea. "I'll bring coffee."

She let out a mirthless chuckle. "Okay. Thank you."

"Where are you?"

"On the sidewalk near Katrina's building."

"I'll be there soon."

"Thank you, Brewster."

As he poured the sweet coffee into a thermos, he pondered the foolishness of his actions. Here he was, an extremely asocial pigeon - he'd barely had a conversation with anyone besides his regular customers in years - dropping everything to go and bring coffee to a heartbroken girl. It was ridiculous.

And there was still that voice in his head that was telling him that this was a bad idea, reminding him of a similar situation in high school that ended with the girl he loved using him as a rebound, then dropping him without a second glance the minute her boyfriend wanted her back. He reminded himself that he was asocial for a reason, and that reason involved avoiding unnecessary pain like this.

But she's worth it, he thought suddenly, which shocked him enough that he had to sit down. Where had that thought come from? When had he started to think of the girl as more than just a customer?

* * *

He got off the bus ten minutes later and immediately put up an umbrella. The rain coming down on the city was cold and made it difficult to see, but he spotted the girl huddled against a wall near the fortune teller's building. He made a beeline for her, absently noting that there was a blue frog talking to a red duck by the fountain, and that the girl was watching them talk.

"Are you alright?" Brewster asked as he sat beside the girl. He held out the thermos of coffee. She smiled slightly as she took it.

"Not really," she admitted quietly, looking away from the pigeon. "It's not... I mean, I was dating him for a year..."

She was watching the frog and the duck again. Brewster shook his head. "No, I guess it doesn't."

They sat in silence for a few moments while the girl drank her coffee until she asked, "Brewster, have you ever had a girlfriend?"

He looked at her, before cautiously replying, "Once."

"What happened?"

On one wing, Brewster was happy that she wasn't focused on her ex... but on the other, he was kind of nervous about telling her about his life. Privacy had worked well for him in the past, after all...

Oh, well. In for a penny, in for a pound. "She left me for her ex."

"Oh." The girl's face screwed up into a sympathetic scowl, as though she was angry at his long-ago sort-of girlfriend. "And she didn't apologize or anything?"

"She never spoke to me again. I didn't speak to her either."

"She just dumped you?" The girl had a determined expression on her face, as though making up her mind to do something. "She didn't know what she was giving up."

And suddenly, the girl was kissing him. Brewster was paralyzed with shock, thoughts whirling through his head. What had brought this on? Had he unwittingly encouraged this? Was he just a rebound to her, as he had been before?

The girl realized that he wasn't responding and backed off. "I'm sorry," she started. "I-I didn't... I mean..."

Suddenly, Brewster's brain caught up. "Mango," he said, then he was kissing her.

They separated after a short time. Mango smiled at him. "What brought that on?"

"I don't know," he replied. He was smiling too, really smiling, for the first time in a long time. "I guess you're more than just a customer."

She laughed at that. "Who told you my name? I don't remember ever properly introducing myself to you."

"I heard you telling Slider the first time you met him," Brewster explained. "Mango. It's a strange name."

"So's Brewster," she replied.

"That's not my real name," he said. "Just a name I call myself."

"What is your real name?"

"Doesn't matter."

She studied him for a moment, then nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Mango's not my real name either, but I like it better."

Brewster nodded.

Mango looked over at Jeremiah again, standing by the fountain with his red duck. When she spoke to him earlier, he said that he wanted to meet a friend out by the fountain once. It looked like he already had.

Brewster put a hesitant wing on her shoulder. "It's over with him."

She smiled encouragingly back at him. "I know. And it'll never come back. But I'm okay with that." She kissed him again. "I have another boyfriend now. And this one makes me coffee."

"It's still going to be the usual price," he warned her.

She sighed. "Ah, well. I tried." But she laughed anyway, and she wouldn't let Brewster have his thermos back when he reached for it.

* * *

**A/N**: Well, I thought it was cute, although Brewster may have been a bit OOC... Not on purpose, mind you. Mango is my character from my Animal Crossing town. And I do rather love Brewster, and Jeremiah. I would be so mad if he moved. He's the last villager in my town who's been there from the beginning. Anyway, please review, if you liked it, or if you didn't. Thanks for reading!


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